The Gold Bat

with no uncertain voice. "Let

much as if he had put up the wrong bird. From the dimensions of the

y, you idiot.

this while in his pocket for a match, found one loose, and struck a light. The fe

!" he exclaimed. "What a

opic of his arm, and the effect that the vi

roken it," he sa

you for somebody else.

id an ungramm

o's

rve

the more immediate neighbourhood. Harve

Renford. "Look here, O'Hara,

r by profession, th

careful, because one isn't allowed down here, and there'd

d be cobbed,"

they?" as

e to have a l

rre

ts. We couldn't keep them in the house, as they'd have got dropped on in a secon

d O'Hara. "Do ye f

breakfast--we take it in turns to get up early--and once directly after

at

back a saloon-pistol with him. We keep i

ye do with

as they come o

when ye

some reluctance, "we have

inch off one of them. If it had been a decent-sized rabbit, I should have plugged it middle stump; only it was a sma

en anybody down h

e while we were feeding the ferrets. We waited till they'd g

see who t

arvey. There, aren't they rippers? Quite tame, too. They know us quite well. They know they're going to be fed, too. Hullo, Sir N

of idea that that was the right thing to

ble to show his ferrets off t

ey, when the little animals had had their meal

ain, their curiosity would be roused, which would be fatal. And to give any reason except the true one called for a display of impromptu invention of which he was not capable. Besides,

comment

e!" he

re deeply into

hink they meet do

em here, too. I don't see what object they could have down here if they weren

ping ferrets," h

ara. "You're unique in that way. No, it must be t

utation in the school for out-of-the-way doings was considerable. In the br

t till lock-up. You tw

we'd better,

o a soul"--a warning which extracted ferv

ed on to the gravel, "is something

think O'Hara w

hey're certain to come again. Don't you wish y

u over to the shop. I want to

And they d

gs, and, pushing open the door, went out into the open air. It felt very fresh and pleasant after the brand of atmosphere supplied in the vault. He then ran over to the gymnasium to meet Moriarty, feeling a little disgusted at the lack of

sium became a sort of social club. People went there with a very small intention of doing gymnastics. They went to lounge about, talking to cronies, in front of the two huge stoves which warmed the place. Occasionally, as a concession to the look of the thing, they would do an easy exercise or two on the horse or parallels, but, for the most part, they preferred the r?le of spectator. There was plenty to see. In one corner O'Hara and Moriarty would be sparring their nightly si

there--there was always one at least--and observed in suave accents, "Please, sir, can I have a paper?" Whereupon, he, taking a scrap of paper, would write upon it, "J. O. Jones (or A. B.

nsequently, certain lawless spirits would range the neighbourhood after lock-up, and, by putting in a quarter of an hour at t

, to whom he confided between the rounds the substance of his evening's discoveries, reminded him of it. "

One of these nights we'll take a nig

riarty. "Are ye

g at the body this round. The one Fitzsimm